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Brad Paisley's 'Wheelhouse' streaming on iTunes

Country singer Brad Paisley's new album "Wheelhouse" features guest appearances from Charlie Daniels, LL Cool J, Hunter Hayes and Dierks Bentley. It's streaming at iTunes a week before its official release.

The key songs on Brad Paisley's new album Wheelhouse find the country singer expanding his world view.

The album, which features singles Beat This Summer and Southern Comfort Zone, is full of surprises, including guest appearances from both Charlie Daniels and LL Cool J. It's streaming on iTunes, a week in advance of its April 9 release.

"I like being somebody you can't quite pin down," Paisley, 40, tells USA TODAY. "I really did go into the studio with the mind-set of 'If this has been done before, especially by me, I don't want to do it this time.' "

Wheelhouse finds the singer of hits like Mud on the Tires and Welcome to the Future taking huge leaps forward, not only thematically but stylistically.

"When I started, I knew the parameters of who I wanted to be — not who I was, because I really wasn't formed yet," says the country singer. "I knew that I wanted to be in this box right here, so I did that. Then the next album came, and I expanded a little bit. Then the next one after that, I expanded a little bit more. The next thing you know, at one extreme I'm doing Celebrity and Online, songs that are really not country topics, or going more organic and dark with something like Whiskey Lullaby.

Other guests on the album include Dierks Bentley, Hunter Hayes, Mat Kearney and actor Eric Idle. Outstanding in Our Field, the collaboration with Bentley and Hayes, samples Roger Miller's 1964 country smash Dang Me.

In Southern Comfort Zone, a Southerner discovers a world bigger than he imagined, one where not everyone knows all the words to Ring of Fire and Amazing Grace. In Karate, a long-suffering wife learns to defend herself from the abusive outbursts of her husband — much to his surprise. Those Crazy Christians comes from the vantage point of an unbeliever.

The most venturesome song on Wheelhouse, though, has to be Accidental Racist, an examination of racial attitudes recorded with LL Cool J in December when the rapper was in Nashville to co-host The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!.

"This couldn't be a thing where you turned it on and knew exactly what was going to happen next," Paisley says. "That's happening too much in all forms of entertainment. The moves and songs and albums that flip me out are the ones where I can't tell you what's coming next."

In addition to the new album, Paisley also has an interactive book called Building a Wheelhouse, which explores the recording process involved in Wheelhouse. Created and designed specifically for iBooks, it offers insight into the making of the album from both songwriting and production perspectives.